The Guy is a Hopeless Firebending Jerk
by Charmed Ravenclaw
Summary: The guy can't hunt, is scared of Boomerang, can't firebend and can't go a day without pissing off Katara. Set between the Western Air Temple and The Firebending Masters. Bromance rather than slash. Chapter 8 Two Sides to the Story is up!
1. Sokka vs The Fireflakes

Chapter 1: Sokka vs. The Fireflakes

"Okay, this is really, really weird," I said to Aang as we left Prince Jerk – or former Prince Jerk – in his own room. Aang smiled optimistically and nodded serenely. Of course he's not too worried. He has way too much faith in mankind; the same way Katara has hope. Speak of the water witch, there she was heading towards Prince Jerk's room right now. She looked pissed.

"Hey, what the hell happened?" Haru burst in, followed closely by Teo and Duke. Sorry, I mean _The_ Duke.

"What you mean about letting Zuko join us?" Aang asked.

"I meant what happened here?" Haru gestured to the blown up debris and the occasional missing building. Okay, fair enough. "W-wait a second – Zuko… w-whaaat?"

"Zuko saved us from Combustion Man," Aang explained. I harrumphed. Seriously, all the guy did was get himself blown off a cliffside. Do I get any acknowledgement around here? And what about poor Boomerang? "He's going to teach me firebending."

"What?" Haru, Teo and _The_ Duke chorused together. Teo scowled. "I thought you guys said you were never letting Zuko join our camp?"

"Well…" I said. "Aang needs a firebending teacher. He's the only one we've got. So…"

I gave a helpless shrug. Hopefully they understood the situation. Clearly The Duke didn't.

"But firebenders are evil!" he sputtered. "What if he slits our throats during our sleep? What if he burns this Air Temple down?"

I saw Katara stomping out of Prince Jerk's room. You know what? I wouldn't worry too much about Prince Jerk right now.

* * *

><p>Lunch was interesting. It had been tense for the last few days because we had been discussing what to do with Prince Jerk but now that he was here with us... Katara called out lunch and everyone, or rather everyone who wasn't Zuko, congregated around the cooking pot as usual. I spotted Zuko peek his head out of the door and then slip back inside. I stifled a laugh – if all it took to scare Prince Jerk were some firm words from Katara then we should have set her on him ages ago.<p>

Everyone ate quietly for fear of setting off a waterbomb. There was hot soup nearby and having that explode would not be pretty. Eventually Toph sighed and strode over to Prince Jerk's room.

"Why is she so concerned about Zuko?" Katara complained. "He burned her feet! She shouldn't be going anywhere near him!"

I would agree with her but Aang and I were smarter than to get involved. The Toph vs. Katara battles were messy – and I'm not just talking about mud fights. I gave a noncommittal shrug. Katara seemed to be annoyed that no one was willing to argue this point with her so she dealt with it by stirring the stew. Forcefully.

Toph came out followed by a hesitant Prince Jerk. He was carrying out a bag of something, which he seemed to be eating his lunch from. Toph plopped herself back down and began eating her stew again without much notice of Katara's frown. I've often wondered if Toph can sense glowering. Prince Jerk looked around, not sure where to sit – we didn't save a spot for him. He made a move to sit next to Appa until Toph decided to push herself closer to me to make space for him. I nearly knocked over the stew pot, earning a glare from Katara. Thanks Toph. Prince Jerk didn't look too grateful either. He sat down and said, "Er hi, my name is Zuko."

I wondered who on earth he was introducing himself to seeing as we all already know him until I remembered we didn't actually formally introduce him to Haru, Teo and TheDuke. He put out his hand for them to shake. The three of them glanced at each other not sure what to do with it. Prince Jerk's smile faltered before letting his arm drop back to his side. Thankfully Teo saved us from awkward silence.

"I'm Teo. And this is Haru and Duke."

"It's _The _Duke!" the kid exclaimed. Sheesh. Apparently the _The_ is his first name.

Prince Jerk nodded as if this was perfectly normal and shook hands with the hesitant Haru and Teo. He made a move to shake _The_ Duke's hand but the kid just refused and stared. He gave up and continued eating whatever was in his bag. Whatever it was, it sure sounded tasty. They were these round crunchy things he kept popping into his mouth. Katara scowled at him and thrust a bowl of stew at him. He looked up at her nervously.

"Um, don't worry about me, that's not necessary," he said. "I brought my own food so you don't have to worry about feeding me and stuff."

Perhaps as a surprise to everyone who wasn't Aang, Toph or myself, Katara looked even more affronted. Toph snickered.

"What, is my cooking not good enough for you?" she asked.

"What?" Prince Jerk looked bewildered. "N-no! I just thought you wouldn't appreciate an extra mouth to feed, that's all! And seeing as you people already hate me – "

I laughed and shook my head. Meh, Katara was too angry with Prince Jerk to notice me. She practically threw the bowl of soup in front of him. A lot of stew spilled out. If it weren't for the presence of the younger kids like Th_e_ Duke and even Aang I think she would have sworn her head off at him. As it was she scowled and continued eating her own stew.

Prince Jerk stared at the bowl unsure what to do with it. I grinned behind the guise of drinking from my bowl – I had actually finished it long ago. But seriously, the way he was eying that bowl – Buddy! You just drink from it, all right? It's not that hard. Especially to appease an angry Katara.

"It's not poisoned, just in case you're wondering." Ah Toph. She always knows the right thing to say at the right moment.

Prince Jerk blushed. I didn't even know he was capable of such a human gesture. Katara exploded. Or to be more precise, she exploded the stew. That, sadly, I knew she was capable of. I'm so glad she wasn't born a firebender.

"You think I'm going to poison you?" she said dangerously. "I would never resort to that kind of treachery, unlike you – "

"Katara!" Toph and Aang called out at the same time. Katara promptly continued to eat her stew in sullen silence.

Prince Jerk's eyes continued to dart between Katara and the bowl of soup. All of sudden his arm shot out, snatching the bowl of soup and gulping what was left of it down. He promptly dropped the bowl back on the floor. That was the strangest form of appeasement I have ever seen.

"So…" I said. "How was it?"

"Um, it was good," he mumbled wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. "I mean, it could have used some fireflakes but – "

Katara promptly got up and snatched his empty bowl away from him and throwing it into the empty pot along with other dirty dishes before stomping over to the water fountain and throwing everything in. Seriously, didn't the guy know how not to piss off a woman? He put his head in his hands.

"Don't mind Sugar Queen," Toph said slapping him on the back. "I told her the same thing about pulling my own weight when I first joined and she got ticked off at me too."

"Thanks to Zuko no one gets second rounds of soup!" Katara yelled from the fountain. Haru and I exchanged glances of disappointment. We are men! We _need_ a lot of food to grow, be strong, healthy, protect people from firebenders…

"Um, well," Prince Jerk said. "You guys can have some of my fireflakes if you want. You know if you're still hungry…"

He threw his food bag to the middle as a peace offering. Before Katara could even react Aang grabbed the bag with enthusiasm and said, "Oh boy I haven't had fireflakes in a hundred years!"

He grabbed them and wolfed them down. "Why didn't I think of getting some of these back when I was in Fire Nation school? Fireflakes don't have meat!"

"You were in a Fire Nation school?" Prince Jerk raised an eyebrow. I wonder if he had both eyebrows he'd raise both of them or just one.

"Yeah but we had to leave after the dance party we threw," Toph said. Prince Jerk sat with a confused expression but decided not to ask. Katara and I watched Aang cautiously for signs of being poisoned but he remained as bubbly as ever.

"It's not poisoned you know," Prince Jerk said with a smile. I think this was a poor attempt at a joke. Katara scowled but continued with the dishes.

I eyed off the fireflakes. They may be from the evil Fire Nation but I've got to hand it to them, their food was pretty good. And Prince Jerk and Aang seemed to be fine. I slowly took up the bag.

"Be careful, they're hot," Prince Jerk advised. Pfft! What did that jerkbender know about hot? I can take the heat! I fought benders and non-benders with the only mighty Boomerang to help me out, no wishy-washy magic needed. What's a couple crispy spicy potato slices?

I grabbed a handful and shoved them into my mouth to make a point to Prince Jerk. Then, sadly and pathetically, I choked. Oh God, my mouth was on fire! It was like the devils and arsonists were having a party in there! I began spluttering and writhing on the floor. Tears welled up in the most undignifying unmanly fashion. Someone put it out, put it out!

"What's going on here?" Katara stormed over. I gestured to my mouth and made dry-retching noises because I couldn't say anything else. Oh come on, waterbend into my mouth woman! She turned to Prince Jerk. Oh jeez, don't get distracted with him now! Hello? I'm dying here!

"What did you do?" she screeched.

"I tried to warn him!" Prince Jerk gestured at me. Woman! Pay attention to me! Now! "Look he'll be fine! He just needs water! Or even milk! Do you guys have milk?"

Aang, thank Tui and La for Aang! With his airbending he sped all the way to the kitchen and back with the milk jug at hand. I wolfed it down. Oh man that was the stuff. Relief! Sweet relief.

Oh wait, maybe not. Katara was glaring at me now.

"What?" I said. Jeez wasn't she relieved I was still alive?

"You just finished our supply of milk!" Katara yelled at me.

"What? My mouth was on fire! It was an emergency! I was dying!"

"It wouldn't have been on fire if you didn't listen to _him_!" She jerked her thumb to Prince Jerk.

"It's not my fault he can't handle it!" Prince Jerk protested. "I tried to warn him – "

Katara sighed and yanked the milk jug from my hands, stomping off into the kitchen. Prince Jerk glared at me and snatched his fireflakes back. Then he stomped off to his room. Pfft. Drama queens.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Some of you may notice I just changed the title – I felt this was more suitable for the whole story. Thank you to everyone who faved and even more thanks to those who reviewed – this encouraged me to write more and upload. **

**This was written when I got frustrated by the lack of bromance fics between Sokka and Zuko compared to the amount of slash fics. I don't have anything against slash fics – in some cases I even ship it, but not for Sokka and Zuko. I really love watching bromances – to me they're much more fun to watch a pair of guys being guys. In slash fics I also find that guys can get a bit out of character and a bit too sentimental. So I wrote a bromance fic here, whilst waiting for my favourite Avatar authors to update. I hope I've kept everyone relatively in character.**

**I love Sokka's tendency to overreact. I wrote this waiting for my favourite Avatar authors to update. I expect that the first mealtime with Gaang would be especially awkward for Zuko. I was a bit sad they didn't expand on these awkward moments so I wrote it out here. Teo, Haru and The Duke also don't really get mentioned a lot so I chucked them in here. If you want me to write more, do say so :D**

**I borrowed fireflakes from the wonderful emletish, author of Stalking Zuko and Not Stalking Zuko on . Actually, a lot of this fic is inspired by her writing so check out her stuff if you haven't already done so. The stories are Zutarian but even as a non-Zutarian you'll enjoy them because the stories are well written, the romance is slow boiled, not ham fried up and the characters are in character. She also explores fascinating aspects of the Avatar universe I never even thought of, so it's worth reading for those. And, as we can see, I have borrowed her style of long rambly author's notes, so with that I bit you adieu! **


	2. A Supposedly Quiet Day at the Air Temple

Chapter 2: A Supposedly Quiet Day at the Air Temple

Prince Jerk sulked in his room for the rest of the day only coming out to eat dinner before slamming the door back in his room. But at dinner he improved in being a hospitable guest and ate the meal Katara cooked instead of his fireflakes. Toph didn't bother him again but trained Aang in earthbending while Katara stomped around doing chores.

I made a training schedule for Aang. My other plans may not have gone so well but I think a plan for training is important. Firebending for Aang was probably the first priority so I decided to schedule a few days of firebending. Then maybe Aang could cut these down to half days with earthbending too, seeing as he's still struggling with that element. Later on we can throw waterbending in the mix and Aang would be adequate with all four in time for Sozin's Comet. Katara complains that I do nothing but what I do is important! Apparently the whole group fell apart without me when I went off training with Piandao – can't follow a schedule for the life of them!

I barged in on Prince Jerk staring at a picture of some woman and told him that I had scheduled him to train with Aang for the next few days. He said that was fine by him – he may as well start proving how much trouble he was worth as soon as possible. Then he raised his one eyebrow and said, "Schedule?"

My mouth fell open. Seriously, evil jerkbender who followed us all over the world had no idea about scheduling? To be evil and capable of ruling the world don't firebenders need a certain level of organisation?

Prince Jerk just shrugged. "Capturing the Avatar was the only thing on my schedule for more than three years. It's hard to have a schedule when you people kept flying around everywhere and going to random places."

"Oh gee, sorry you weren't able to have a schedule because of us," I snapped before leaving Prince Jerk to his own devices.

* * *

><p>I didn't bother getting up early next morning. I didn't have anything scheduled for myself today and waking up early would just prolong my hours of boredom as well as listening to everyone else complaining. I should start making some new plans, like how we're going to rescue Dad and everyone else, find out what the hell happened to Suki or how we're going to attack the Firelord before Sozin's comet etc, etc, but Aang needed to master firebending first. There's no point in getting too ahead of schedule – especially if it doesn't go according to plan. I will think of something to help Dad and find Suki. Just not now.<p>

Eventually I got bored and slightly depressed with lying around so I got up and bugged Katara. She refused to make me breakfast.

"If you wanted breakfast you should have gotten up hours ago like everyone else! For a guy who loves schedules you're pretty bad at following a healthy routine. Besides I'm already making lunch."

"You snooze you lose, Snoozles," Toph said cheerfully. Oh wow Toph, there's the epitome of wit right there.

Maybe I'll round up Haru, Teo and TheDuke for hunting later but I didn't know where those three went. Out of the kitchen window I spied Prince Jerk and Aang training. I grabbed an apple to the many protests of Katara – "It's nearly lunch soon, why bother? You've already finished all the milk you're going to finish the apples too!" – and moved to that location, where I couldn't hear her whining.

It didn't seem like firebending training was really happening at the moment. Aang was slumped over a cement pillar while Prince Jerk was performing some kata. He was angry again. I didn't really expect socially awkward Prince Jerk to stick around for long.

"Hey jerks! Mind if I watch you two jerks do your jerkbending?"

"GET OUT OF HERE!"

"Okay take it easy I was just kidding around." I got up. Ticking off Prince Jerk was too easy. And fun now that I could do it without the consequences.

"Ah ha! Jerkbending! Still got it!" I said to myself. Pity Toph wasn't here. See Toph, this is how it's done!

* * *

><p>The most logical place to find Haru, Teo and The Duke would be in their rooms – unless they were out exploring again. In that case there is no logical place to start – except for perhaps the creepiest most sinister part of the temple that for some reason people feel the need to explore before a giant spirit monster, or something along those lines kills them.<p>

Haru and Teo's rooms were empty but I found them all congregated in The Duke's room. However the moment I stepped in I found myself hanging upside down by rope looped around my ankle. Fantastic.

"What the hell is going on?" I yelled.

Teo and Haru looked apologetic and came over to help me while Duke jumped on his bed yelling, "It worked! It worked!"

Haru got up on a chair and undid the knots. I crash-landed on the floor.

"Sorry," Haru said helping me up. "The Duke just wanted us to help him set up a trap in case the firebender entered his room. He couldn't reach the ceiling."

"What? Why?" I rubbed the wrists and the chin that I had landed on quite forcefully and scowled at The Infuriating-Source-of-my-Pain. You know what? He doesn't really deserve the _The_ right now. No _The_ for you!

"He doesn't feel safe," Teo explained before Duke could complain about the _The_. "Actually none of us do."

"We know Aang needs a firebending teacher," Haru said hastily. "It's just hard, you know, considering he was the enemy and all."

I rolled my eyes but fair enough. Still, Aang, Toph, Katara and I had more reason to hate and fear Prince Jerk than Haru, Teo and Duke combined. Meeting him here at the Western Air Temple was the first time they've all met him face to face.

"Look," I said. "Even if Prince Jerk does revert to his old ways he wouldn't be interested in taking out you three guys. He'd just grab Aang and go. So you guys are perfectly safe."

"What, you think we'd just let Prince Jerk take Aang without a fight?" Haru said indignantly.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not saying that! I'm just saying, as awesome and extremely well made this precaution is, it's not necessary. It's just not logical for Prince Jerk to attack you."

"How would you know that?" Duke yelled all of a sudden. "He's a firebender! Firebenders are evil! They tear down and wreck homes and families for no reason!"

I stared at him. Was this what happened to The Duke when he was young?

"What makes you say _all_ firebenders are evil?" I asked slowly.

In a way I was relieved that his explanation had nothing to do with his parents dying. But at the same time I was pretty pissed off with the real answer.

"Jet said so!"

Jet. Fucking Jet. Of course he dictated the kid in his fucking evil and stupid ways. I sighed.

"Look, I know you've been hurt by the Fire Nation. Hell, everyone has! But there's no reason to hate everyone from the Fire Nation. I've met some, er, reasonably good Fire Nation people! Um…"

This is going well. "I guess Jeong Jeong counts. He was willing to help Aang out…" Still, crazy deserter who killed Aang's self esteem wasn't the best example. "Ooh! There was a sage at Roku's Temple that helped us out! Can't remember his name and I don't know what happened to him…"

At this point Toph would probably suggest Prince Jerk's uncle but that guy convinced Yue to turn into the moon so no.

"What about the firebender with us?" Duke asked.

"Well…" I struggled. Prince Jerk wasn't exactly a good guy. But I can't really tell Duke that or it would take away my point. "Er, yes! Prince, er, Zuko, is a good guy. I mean he's teaching Aang after all! And he decided to notice how evil his Nation was! He's even turned against his own father and joined Aang of all people to try and bring the war to an end. See? That's good."

It was weird. As soon as I said those words I knew I meant them. Pity I didn't sound very convincing because Duke gave me a look that said I was totally lying.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Whilst my main focus will be Zuko and Sokka I decided to explore some of the characters especially The Duke. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if the kid had been brainwashed by Jet – Jet would have probably practically dictated his hate in his speeches. Jet was also a very charismatic and good public speaker – according to all of my history teachers this is the quality Hitler so persuasive in dictating his people to kill innocent people. YMMV on that though.**

**Even though Sokka would respect the fact that Jet did die redeeming himself and defending the Avatar, the fact that he preached indiscriminate hate would piss him off. **


	3. No, You Can't Take Aang Away!

Chapter 3: No, you do not have permission to take the Avatar away

Dinner was another tense and awkward affair. Prince Je – I mean Zuko admitted he couldn't firebend like he used to. I tried to help him out but that didn't work. Katara wasn't helping the situation at all. Zuko was suggesting that he and Aang should fly over to some ancient Sun Warrior ruins to see if they could learn anything when she stood up, glaring at Zuko and said, "Absolutely not! What if this is some ploy just to get Aang on his own so he can kidnap him and bring him back to the Fire Nation?"

"I'M NOT BRINGING HIM BACK TO THE FIRE NATION!" Zuko yelled. He pinched the bridge of his nose and looked down. Katara almost looked taken aback. "Look, if you don't trust me so much, why don't you come too? Then you can come and watch me NOT kidnap the Avatar!"

"All right then! I will!" Katara retorted, stroppily packing away the soup items. Zuko began to angrily eat out of his fireflake bag. The Duke timidly raised a hand. Finally Katara noticed.

"Yes Duke?" she said with strained patience.

The Duke didn't even bother to be annoyed about the _The_. "Um, who's going to cook while you're away?"

Everyone looked at each other. Katara threw her hands up in the air. "Surely one of you can cook?"

Haru rubbed the back of his head. "Erm, my mum always cooked for me."

"It's a bit difficult to reach the cooking bench," Teo put in. Katara looked guilty.

Toph shrugged. "My parents never trusted me with a knife for some reason."

"Cooking is a woman's job," I said.

Katara slapped me up the head. Ow! What? It is! Why do you think Nan never bothered teaching me? Besides, even if I offered to help Katara would have shooed me away complaining I'd eat everything. Or so I'd imagine – I've actually never bothered offering but I'm more than positive that she'd complain… complaining is something Katara always does…

"All right then YOU can cook while I'm away!" Katara snapped. Rats. Everyone else's face plummeted. Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence guys.

"First we need to get some food supplies. _Someone_ finished all our apples and milk and I'm sure we'll need more for the trip." Katara glared at me.

I shrugged. "Okay. That reminds me, I need to organise a hunting expedition tomorrow anyway. Haru, are you in?"

"Sure."

"Can I come too?" The Duke piped up.

"I don't see why not."

Teo toyed with the wheels of his chair whilst Zuko kept eating his damn fireflakes. Well, this was awkward…

I hate awkward moments too much for my own good. "Teo, and er, Zuko! Would you two like to join us? Seeing as you're useless at firebending now Zuko you may as well do something. Toph can teach Aang earthbending."

Teo looked up brightly, which did make me feel better even though I had a feeling I was going to possibly regret this tomorrow. I was actually hoping he'd decline and save me the awkwardness but no such luck. The kid thinks he can hunt better than he can cook? The Duke eyed me like I was crazy while Zuko's face blackened before looking sheepishly at his feet. "I'm not very good at hunting."

Katara snorted. "What are you talking about? You hunted the Avatar around the world."

Zuko scowled. "This is different. I haven't had much experience hunting animals. And no, believe it or not, I do not consider the Avatar an animal."

"Guys? I'm right here. And my name is Aang!"

"Didn't your father ever teach you hunting?" I asked loudly before Katara could yell at him again.

The idea was to distract everyone with an ordinary conversation topic. Assuming your father would teach you things is a normal assumption, for most people, right? Well, it looks like a succeeded with distracting everyone from Katara's wrath. Pity I didn't avoid the awkwardness that Katara would have caused anyway. "Erm, how about your Uncle?"

"No," Zuko said quietly and turned away. What I hate even more than awkward moments is being the cause of an awkward moment.

"Don't worry," Haru said brightly. "Sokka's not great either – he just talks it up a lot."

Gee, thanks for the save Haru. "I do not!"

"You know I actually don't remember a single hunting trip of yours where you actually caught anything," Toph put in.

"Remember that giant fish that slapped him in the face and swam back into the ocean?" Katara laughed.

"Remember Foo Foo Cuddly Pup's Mom?" Aang joined in.

"Hey! All right then! Hunting trip tomorrow! Maybe some fishing. Be up bright and early! Good night!"

Ingrates.

* * *

><p>I admit I struggled with the bright and early part of the morning a bit. Fortunately the Momo alarm was up and running. No chance of falling back to sleep with that on. Thanks to Momo everyone was up – Zuko even looked like he had been up for hours. It seems he was still trying to find his lost mojo. He still didn't have it. Unfortunately Katara didn't bother to get up to cook us breakfast, which I thought was a bit mean and selfish considering we were going to hunt and gather for the whole camp.<p>

"Maybe she wants us to practice cooking before she leaves for her big trip," Haru suggested grimly.

Oh right. Katara's revenge. But I didn't really have anything to cook with you see…

"What's going on?" Zuko came up behind us, snacking on his damn fireflakes again. Just because he had food.

"Katara didn't make us breakfast," The Duke said sadly. Damn, he had fantastic puppyduck eyes! He should have used those on Katara last night. Then we'd have breakfast.

"Which means we'll all probably die from Sokka's attempt at cooking," Teo said gloomily.

"Hey! I am Katara's brother. It might be in our blood."

Zuko looked thoughtful. He walked into his room and came back carrying a bag full of rice. He then proceeded to heat the boiling pot and make rice porridge.

"You know how to cook?" Teo said incredulously.

"Yes," Zuko replied shortly.

"When did you learn?" Haru asked.

"When I was on the run from the Fire Nation army. Uncle kept burning the food. Here." Zuko offered a bowl to The Duke. The Duke looked blankly at it. Zuko shrugged. I think he was trying not to look hurt but he didn't quite mask it. He took a sip of the porridge and didn't die of food poisoning a moment later. The Duke cautiously took the bowl from him and slowly took a sip.

"Not bad," he conceded. "Not as good as Katara's though."

Zuko nodded and said, "It's better with fireflakes."

He scooped out more bowls for everyone. It was pretty flavourless but it was bearable. He sprinkled some fireflakes in his. I eyed the fireflakes. I wasn't going to let that food get the best of me. I grabbed some of his flakes – only a bit this time – and sprinkled it into my food.

"Sokka we don't have milk anymore," Haru said.

"It's okay." I slowly ate a spoon of the porridge. Hey, it was all right! My mouth burned a bit but it wasn't in a way I couldn't contain. I smirked at Zuko. Ha! Point one, Sokka.

"Hey Snoozles you realise your face is on fire right?" Toph and Aang entered. After showing similar surprise that Prince Jerk can cook, they had some of Zuko's porridge themselves. Katara got up as Zuko was washing the dishes.

"What are you doing?" she snapped.

Zuko made a gesture to the dishes, as if saying, "Isn't it obvious?"

He didn't have the guts to say it out loud. Katara was about to say something when Aang practically flew in front of her with a bowl of porridge almost yelling, "Katara! We saved you some!"

Katara eyed the bowl of porridge. Then she eyed Zuko. Then she eyed the porridge again some more. Oh jeez, I don't have time for this. We've got hunting and fishing to do and we're already half an hour behind schedule!

"Okay Katara, see you later!" I yelled, grabbing everyone and shoving them onto Appa.

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><p><strong>AN: Hey guys!**

**Updated sooner than I expected. Thanks for the encouraging reviews guys, they are what keep me going. Shout out to Kimberley T and Somariel for taking the time to comment on the 2****nd**** chapter :D.**

**I always found it pretty surprising that Aang and Zuko got a field trip of their own so soon – especially after Katara's lingering in the Western Air Temple. For Zuko to take Aang away on his own was just the perfect set up to kidnap him – what was Katara thinking just letting him go like that? So here I have a chapter trying to explain that.**

**Conveniently, none of the guys can cook here :P Hopeless men :P**


	4. Hunting! A Manly Man's Affair

Chapter 4: Hunting! A Manly Man's Affair

"This is going to be great! Just a beautiful day with all us men here invoking some of the manliest of male traditions – hunting! Then we could do a roast and swap manly stories!" I said.

Why did I say that? It always seems that I tempt fate whenever I'm as optimistic as Katara.

"None of us can cook," Teo pointed out.

I shrugged. "Oh well! All the manlier! Wait a second, Zuko can you cook roast?"

Zuko shook his head. "Well, one time I was stuck in a forest with Uncle. We didn't have any arrows or weapons on us so we just used fireballs. It kind of roasted and killed the rabbirells at the same time."

"How was that?" Haru asked.

"It was hard trying to peel off melted fur from the skin."

There was a general consensus of disgust from the group. I shrugged.

"Eh, it's still, good to get away from all the girls." Of course Aang isn't a girl and I didn't want to get away from him specifically. He wouldn't have enjoyed hunting anyway. Not to say that his beliefs against killing things aren't manly of course… I'm not prejudiced against vegetarians. Anyway, he is the Avatar – that's the manliest thing ever!

Toph would have been cool to bring along too. Everyone gets along with Toph all the time except Katara. In fact she's the only one really grating my nerves right now, about the whole Zuko issue. Fine, I get that she hates him – we all do. But she is the one making everyone in the group feel so tense.

"So," I said. "Zuko, you haven't had much practice in catching animals."

"No."

"Well that's all right," I grinned. "I'll teach you everything I know!"

"I have a feeling that's not much," Haru snorted.

"Hey I'm an experienced hunter and gatherer! I'll teach you how to hunt for animals using good old Boomerang. Remember him?"

Zuko visibly recoiled and eyed Boomerang with suspicion. I stifled a snort of laughter but didn't succeed – he glowered at me. Good thing he can't firebend out of his head or eyes like Combustion Man.

We landed and left Appa at the edge of the forest. We kind of ended up dumping all the equipment we couldn't carry on Teo but he carried it all right. In fact, he wheeled and carried himself through the forest over bushes and abandoned burrows like a pro.

"Before we reached the Northern Air Temple I got a lot of practice doing this through the forest," Teo explained.

We reached a decent depth of the forest and stopped. "Okay, so how are we going to do this?"

Haru shrugged and stretched. "I don't know about you guys but I've got my own style of doing things. I suggest we split up and do things our own way."

The dolt didn't bring any equipment with him. "So, uh how are you going to hunt then big shot? With nothing? Animal magnetism?"

He gave me a smarmy smirk, made even smarmier by that ridiculous moustache. He put a finger on his lips. We stood around doing nothing for a while. I think that nothing stretched out to five minutes. What was this technique and how was it attracting the animals? I was getting bored and twitchy and so was The Duke.

"Haru what are we doing?" I said through gritted teeth.

"Shh! Seriously, how can you be a decent hunter? You need patience to be able to hunt!"

"You don't even have any traps set out yet!"

"Traps? Pfft, I don't need traps."

Dolt. We continued the silence. Teo was quite patient about it while Zuko had propped himself against a tree. He looked quite agitated whilst trying to be relaxed. The Duke looked at Haru quizzically.

Something fuzzy slipped past my foot. "Ahh!"

Haru stomped and a moment later my left foot was encased in rock. I fell into a bush.

"Watch it you're gonna squash it!" Haru yelled, running over to my foot

"Squash what? And this is your fault! You earthbent my foot!"

"You were in the way!"

I managed to turn around to see a cute fluffy rabbirrell up to its neck in rock. Whack! Haru used a rock to knock the poor fellow out and the earth was bent back into the ground.

"Neat," I conceded.

"My Dad taught me," Haru said proudly. I noticed Zuko look away.

"Right," I said. "Well I think we'll leave you to it then. Duke, do you want to come with me?"

The Duke scrunched up his nose in disgust.

"What? Grammatically it would just incorrect for me to say _The_ in that sentence."

He tilted his head at me. "Grammatically? What's a grammatically?"

I see Jet didn't think it was important to teach the kid grammar. Then again Pipsqueak looked after The Duke most of the time and even though the guy is great, he's not particularly bright. I really hope the kid can read.

"Do you guys mind? You're scaring away all the animals?" Haru said. I gestured for the others to follow me. The Duke shook his head at me, grabbed the rope and ran off. He scaled a tree and proceeded to tie his ropes with remarkable efficiency. That was kind of cool. Guess he learnt a few useful things from Jet. It's a pity that a lot of those traps were also used to catch people.

"Well it looks like The Duke is all set. I guess you two can just follow me."

We found a clearing and I whipped out Boomerang. Zuko didn't recoil this time.

"Okay, Boomerang is the most awesome weapon ever because you can throw him and he'll always come back. Watch."

I leaned back and threw Boomerang. Unfortunately the universe hates me so Boomerang went Thunk! Birds flew up but I couldn't do anything to catch them because Boomerang was stuck in a tree. Zuko remained as stoic as ever while Teo looked up at me quizzically.

"Maybe this kind of weapon isn't really suitable for a forest," Teo suggested. "Maybe you should use some Earth Kingdom traps instead of Water Tribe equipment. You know, they're kind of made for an environment with trees in it…"

I slouched off and went to retrieve Boomerang. How could you fail me now buddy?

The earth rumbled underneath me a bit. I looked up. There was something big and shadowy in the depths of the forest. I yanked at Boomerang but he was wedged in there good. Damn my awesome throw!

"Sokka watch out!" Teo yelled. Zuko ran up behind me and helped me rescue Boomerang. We landed on our butts when I began to really feel the ground underneath me shake. CRASH! A gigantic boarfowl burst from the bushes, the size of Foo Foo Cuddly Pup's Mom. He went right over us charging for Teo.

I rolled over and saw Teo fumbling with his chair. He was stuck in the bushes! He wasn't going to be able to move in time. I threw Boomerang at the boarfowl's head. Fortunately or perhaps unfortunately, this time I didn't miss. He made a roundabout turn and came charging at us.

"Now what do we do?" Zuko yelled.

"I don't know I'm working on it!" I yelled back as we went crashing through the forest. The boarfowl wasn't far behind us. One of its tusks nicked my arm. I dropped Boomerang.

I saw Zuko slide into a halt and throw a firepunch at it. He was using this technique? Now? Well, his firebending may have lacked spark lately but it was enough to scorch the boarfowl a bit and grab its attention. The boarfowl turned on him and he ran back in the other direction.

"Zuko! No!"

If he was going in the direction I think he was going, he was heading straight back to Haru and The Duke. Stupid jerkbender! I grabbed Boomerang and ran after them. They both went past Teo who I saw was armed with… something. I had never seen one of those before. He aimed it at the boarfowl and I saw an arrow go into its side. But it was too angry, too fast to feel that now. I grabbed Teo's chair and wheeled/carried him to where The Duke and Haru were.

It reached The Duke's area first. I couldn't throw Boomerang now because that would attract its attention to us – and I can't run fast with Teo. Zuko seemed to realise this too. He spun around and made several firebending motions at the base of the trees. I think the idea was to cut them down at the bases to make an obstacle for the boarfowl but his bending was too weak and his shots didn't go far enough. It looked like it was going to run him over when he shot up into the air – upside down. Ha! The Duke's trap actually saved him! In the most humiliating fashion too. Brilliant!

Fortunately The Duke wasn't on the ground when the boarfowl came crashing in. He was up in a tree. But that didn't do him much good – stupid kid went, "Yee Ha!" and actually jumped onto the boarfowl's back! What the hell? This isn't some kind of rodeo? Stupid kid!

Teo began fumbling with his weapon again and sent another shot at the boar but hit a tree instead. Zuko swung himself in his trap. He managed to firebend through his feet a bit – how do firebenders do that through their shoes anyway? – and cut the rope, landing on the boarfowl with The Duke. He nearly slipped off but managed to climb up. Teo got another shot – this time at the boarfowl's leg. He got him right behind the knee. The boarfowl drunkenly went crashing sideways but kept moving.

Haru was staring at the boarfowl in shock as it approached his territory. He seemed to have forgotten how to earthbend.

"Haru! Move!" I yelled.

Haru dodged sideways as the boarfowl came crashing down. Teo shot another arrow at its other leg, also getting him behind the knee. He wasn't going to be able to move much but his head and upper body still thrashed dangerously. Haru finally seemed to remember he was an earthbender and encased it lower body in rock. He stomped up a giant rock ready to aim it at the beast's head.

"Haru no! You'll hit The Duke!... and Zuko!" I yelled. I swear the jerkbender gave me scowl from his rodeo ride. He snatched The Duke by the waist and jumped off the boarfowl, snatching onto a branch with arm.

CRUNCH! Eurgh! Ewe! Gross. I'm so glad Aang wasn't here to see that – he would have cried. Heck, I'm a man and I was close to squealing like a girl. The boarfowl got his head bludgeoned in by the rock. Teo and I missed all of the blood splatter but it covered Haru and Zuko, who had been shielding The Duke from it. The Duke wrestled himself from Zuko's grip and inspected the damage with delight.

"Cool!" he exclaimed.

The rest of us just stood there for a while panting. I don't think anyone was prepared to do anything.

"Well," I said weakly. "That's how you hunt a boarfowl. Hunting isn't so bad now, right Zuko?"

He scowled at me. "I think I'll try fishing next time."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I suppose it is awkward that I have Teo hunting here isn't it? I was going to exclude him but I just felt bad doing that – it sort of goes against everything that The Last Airbender tries to teach you is that people with disabilities can cope just fine in life. So here he is, adapted to 4-wheel drive wheelchairing.**

**How was the description of the action? I've never been comfortable with writing the description of action – I never knew if it made sense of if the amount of description I was using was slowing the pace of the action down.**


	5. Forgiveness for the Firebender

Chapter 5: Forgiveness for the Firebender

"So Teo, what was that thing you used to shoot the boarfowl with?" I asked while Zuko and I were carving up pieces of the boarfowl to carry home. You know, I'm kind of glad I've never been able to catch anything this big before. The blood splatter was just horrible. I accidentally copped a mouthful of it from the first slice. Eurgh!

"My Dad and I call it a crossbow," Teo said holding it up proudly. "We made it before leaving the Northern Air Temple."

"Neat," I said hacking off a particularly hard bit. The Duke thought it would be cool to take the horns home as some kind of trophy but 1) they would be hard to hack off, 2) Appa probably wouldn't be able to carry them and 3) they would be a big smelly signal to the Fire Nation.

Haru was twiddling his fingers and spinning rocks. Zuko and Haru were both equally stupid for not bringing any real cutting equipment with them although Zuko had claimed his schmancy swords weren't really good for animal hunting (apparently he had tried) and Haru pointed out that most of the animals he caught were small enough to be carried home to be skinned and gutted. Still, at least Zuko had bought a small dagger to help me slice up the meat whilst Haru was doing nothing. I dumped my portion of the meat in front of him. "Here, since you didn't cut up the meat you can carry my share back to Appa."

Haru dropped his balls. Of rock. "Hey! Look at all the rabirells I caught! Besides, I'm the one who killed the beast!"

"Yeah, well I'm the one who found him."

"Sokka, you _want_ to admit you blundered into the creature and nearly got us all killed?"

"That's not important! This is our biggest hunt ever! We should celebrate with a roast – when we get back and Katara can cook us one."

"We nearly got killed," Zuko said blankly.

"Yeah!" Duke said, jumping up and down. "Best adventure ever!"

Zuko looked at The Duke with a mixture of the "You are insane" look and a small smile.

I sighed. Someone was going to have to give this speech to The Duke sooner or later. "Duke. You can't just go running into danger like that. You could have gotten killed – you could have gotten everyone else killed too. What you did wasn't brave – it was stupid. A good warrior thinks before he acts. You're actually quite lucky that Zuko managed to save you."

Zuko started at being acknowledged with praise whilst The Duke scowled. "Back when I was with the Freedom Fighters – "

"You had Pipsqueak to look out for you," I said as gently as I could. "Pipsqueak isn't here right now so he needs you to be responsible until he gets back to you."

"Pipsqueak didn't look after me!" The Duke screamed back. "I can look after myself! Before joining you I roped over twenty firebenders on my own!"

"Duke!" Teo interrupted. "Sokka's right. We need to be careful. What you did back there was awesome – but it didn't help anyone. It just put yourself and everyone else at risk."

The Duke scowled, opened his mouth to say something and then closed it again. He trailed behind as we walked back to the clearing to Appa. I think he might have been crying a bit at being scolded – discipline probably wasn't something prevalent at Jet's camp.

Appa had a heart attack when we brought all the meat we could carry back. He just dropped and rolled onto his back – I think he fainted.

"Appa! Buddy what's wrong?" I ran up to him and pulled Appa's mouth open. He didn't eat poison berries again did he?

"Sokka get out of the bison's mouth," Zuko said. "You might make him sick."

"Pfft. He licked you and didn't get sick," I said beginning to clamber into Appa's mouth to check if there was anything blocking his throat or something. Haru and Zuko grabbed me by the armpits and yanked me out.

"I think he's talking about the blood. Appa's a vegetarian – he could get sick from you walking into his mouth," Haru pointed out.

Right, the blood. We all washed off as much as we could, revived Appa with a splash of water and flew back home.

* * *

><p>"Tui and La! What happened to you?" Katara screamed when we got back.<p>

What? None of us was seriously injured. Toph walked in with Aang a moment later and gagged. "What smells like blood?"

Oh yeah. I keep forgetting about the blood – you get used to being covered in it after a while. Katara whipped out some water from her bag while Aang nearly fainted. The water glowed.

"Wait, there's no need to heal us!" I yelled. "We're fine!"

"Really?" Katara said angrily holding up my arm where the boarfowl had nicked it. She quickly cleaned it and healed it. "This is what happens when I leave you "men" alone?! Can't you properly take care of yourselves?!"

She gave an extra hard glare to Zuko, probably thinking that this was his fault.

"Most of it is the boarfowl's blood. Look, we caught meat!"

We put our packages on the floor. Katara stared.

"Wait, Sokka, _you_ actually caught something?" Toph said.

"Why do you sound so surprised Toph?" I asked.

"Well, actually, he didn't kill it, I did," Haru said proudly, twirling his finger around his moustache. Aang scrunched up his nose in disgust.

"Dude, you shat bricks! You forgot that you were an earthbender!"

"Hey, don't forget my work with the crossbow!" Teo added in.

"Well I steered it in!" The Duke yelled. What? Is that what you thought you were doing?

"All right, enough! Everybody go wash themselves up and I'll make a roast," Katara said.

"Smells like death in here," Aang commented hoarsely.

Katara and Aang refused to wash our clothes for us, even though they have their magic waterbending powers. Katara was disgusted with the blood and said we all needed to learn how to wash clothes ourselves before her big trip with Zuko. Aang was just disgusted with the blood. It was the first time he had seen a lot of it I suppose. Every time he fought someone he never really _saw_ the damage he did – usually he'd attack the vessels they were in or be so far away from the damage you couldn't really see it. At the North Pole he was in the Avatar state. Even up close, most of the injuries he caused were bruises from airbending. The damage would have been internal, where he couldn't see it. He probably preferred it that way.

We were smacking our clothes against some rocks in a fast flowing river. Back in the early days Aang tried to convince Katara and I to become vegetarians – he rambled on and on about how life was sacred and how we shouldn't kill. In fact, I think Aang actually helped some of the animals I caught escape. Yet he protested less when he saw us buying meat at the market. I think it was because he didn't have to see the animal get killed. But killing is a natural part of life and war, and so I told him. People and animals have to be killed to survive. At one point Aang will probably have to kill at point blank range to bring this war to a close. After that talk he stopped preaching to us and let bygones be bygones so I didn't bring it up again. Still, it's a worry. I don't quite think Aang's internal bleeding strategy will be enough to stop the Firelord.

"Where are you going?" Haru asked. I looked up. Apparently Zuko had already finished washing his clothes. Damn, I should have worn my Fire Nation outfit today! The blood would have been less noticeable against the red.

"Good," Katara said, walking up behind him. "You can wash Teo's and The Duke's clothing!"

She shoved Teo's and The Duke's clothing into his arms. "By the way, lunch is ten minutes so you'd better hurry up."

Zuko scowled but dropped to his knees and scrubbed The Duke and Teo's clothing silently. It was pretty funny seeing a former Prince taking orders from Katara. Only Katara can outboss a Prince.

After a while I felt an extra pair of eyes watching us. Then I saw The Duke sidle up beside Zuko and poke him with a stick, still a bit afraid to actually touch him. Zuko started and swore as he nearly lost Teo's clothing down the river.

"What's the big idea?" he snapped, once he managed to retrieve the clothing from the river, getting himself soaked with cold water in the process. He glared at the poking stick, practically willing it to burst into flames.

The Duke recoiled considerably. This was actually the most scared I've ever seen him. He dropped the stick and didn't quite know what to say. He may have roped twenty or so firebenders but I suppose actually talking to them was another matter to him.

Zuko looked away from the scared child and breathed in and out very deeply. Then he continued washing Teo's clothing.

"Why did you save me from the boarfowl?" Duke asked suddenly.

Zuko looked genuinely surprised. "Why? Because you were in danger."

"But why did you do it?" The Duke pressed. "Aren't firebenders supposed to be evil?"

Zuko went back to his scrubbing. "Not all of them are."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I'm so sorry for never updating! I actually wrote this chapter a while ago but I hit writer's block pretty bad – I have no real idea where I'm going after this chapter. But I hope this is ok in the meantime until I can actually rack my brains properly again as to what the plot was.**

**I also felt that I had hit a few plot holes with the previous chapter – why didn't Zuko bring those swords with him? At the Western Air Temple he does carry them and continues to do so afterwards. But looking those swords don't seem practical for hunting… But that's just my amateur opinion. And after all, Zuko managed to cut chains with those swords.**


	6. Attempted Peacebending

Chapter 6: Attempted Peacebending

Roast smelled so good! Ugh, why does spit roasting take so long? Katara whacked me with a stick a few times claiming the meat wasn't done yet. I bet she was just doing this to tease me.

"So really, how did you guys really catch the boarfowl?" Toph asked.

"Well," I stretched my arms to the tips of my fingers. "Using my great skill and determination, we detected the boarfowl by following its distinctly marked trail – "

"Sokka blundered upon it whilst demonstrating why Boomerang is an ineffective tool in the Earth Kingdom terrain," Teo interrupted.

Katara put her head in her hands and rubbed her temples while Toph and Aang giggled. I scowled at Teo who only grinned and continued. "However, my crossbow and I managed to save the day."

"Teo, all you did was get in the way," I said.

"Dinner's ready!" Katara called out. As soon as she carved out the first piece I grabbed it. Pity it was burning hot.

"OWWW!" I yelled in a very manly fashion but dropping the meat. Katara sighed and healed my hand with glowing water.

"I have no idea how you lot are going to cope without me," she said, in a very worried manner.

I quickly picked up my piece from the floor and took a bite out of it. "Katara this is delicious! Your best yet!"

Aang however, looked depressed with his cabbage soup. Katara spared him a pitying glance.

"I'm sorry Aang but that will have to do until we can scrounge up some more money for supplies, unless you want to put your faith in Sokka's foraging skills. If he's lucky, maybe he can get you more than a few nuts and unpoisoned berries."

"Thanks Katara. Who do you have to thank for all this meat here again?"

"Well, I could hustle up a few gold pieces…" Toph began casually.

"And we all remember how that ended!" Katara said shortly.

"Erm, what's going on?" Zuko asked Aang as he entered. He still prefers to spend most of his free time isolated in his room. The Duke was trailing after him a bit. He actually spent his day spying on Zuko but after Zuko's little outburst he chose not to talk to him.

"We used up all our Fire Nation money," Aang explained.

Zuko looked thoughtful and then puzzled. "You had Fire Nation money?"

I shrugged. "It's a long story."

He returned to being thoughtful and then walked back into his own room, coming back with a velvety pouch. He handed it over to Katara. She cautiously accepted the pouch and opened it with a gasp. I could hear the soft chinks of all those gold pieces from here. Zuko actually looked amused.

"What, did you think as the former Prince of the Fire Nation that I wouldn't carry some pocket money with me?"

His sense of humour might be improving although now probably wasn't the best time to remind everyone he was the ex-Prince of the Most Hated Nation in the World. Katara promptly snapped the bag shot and placed it on the ground in front of her, as if she didn't want to use it.

Aang sighed. "Come on Katara. At least we got this money legally."

Toph raised her eyebrows and looked in Zuko's direction. "Did you?"

Zuko rubbed the back of his head in an awkward fashion. "Well, I may have broken into the Fire Nation palace vaults…"

Toph, Aang and I burst out laughing. Haru and Teo managed to crack smiles and even The Duke was stifling a giggle. Katara just looked torn. In the end though, the need to feed Aang something other than cabbage soup won out as she sighed and took the money. Zuko scowled but left her in peace as she wrote down a list of things she needed to buy. I finished my dinner and began sharpening Spacesword but the surface of my whetstone wasn't as good as it used to be. I asked Katara if we could get another one.

"Ooh ooh, can we get some more rope too? We could always use some more rope." The Duke added enthusiastically.

"We can't go too overboard," Katara reminded us all. "There are a lot of supplies we need to buy and carry back. We don't even know where the closest town is..."

"I do," Zuko offered. "There is a naval market port a few miles north of here."

"Great!" Aang said a little too loudly. "Zuko can lead us to the closest town to do some shopping. It'll be a fun little fieldtrip!"

"Aang, I do have a map," I muttered under my breath. "He doesn't have to lead."

"Shh, I'm trying to peacebend," he said conspiratorially pointing at Zuko and Katara, who were staring at each other in shocked disgusted silence at the prospect of having to spend a day with each other. Fortunately they were too shocked and/or disgusted to notice us.

"Hmm, maybe not for you Twinkletoes," Toph said. "You're the Avatar and there are posters of you everywhere. Besides, your earthbending needs some tuning up."

Aang looked defeated and wanted to argue but for once Zuko and Katara actually agreed that Aang should stay behind and practice. They also looked shocked at this. The Duke, Teo and Haru didn't have any Fire Nation clothes, so it was just Katara, Zuko and I. Great.

* * *

><p>I don't know why I participated in this shopping trip from hell. Toph would say it was because of my addiction to shopping. Pfft. I really did need a new whetstone, thank you very much! Besides, Katara wasn't being her mature self and to be totally honest, I still didn't trust Zuko enough to be alone with her. He isn't a bad guy but I still don't trust him completely – not yet anyway.<p>

Aang had brightly suggested that Katara should steer Appa and Zuko could give directions. This was probably so they would work in a team and learn to trust each other. It was a terrible idea. From the get-go Katara said that Zuko was a backseat driver, despite the fact that usually the person with the directions usually has to tell the other person where to go.

Fortunately Teo had invented these things called earplugs that were made out of wax. I used them the rest of the way.

We landed Appa in a clearing not too far away from the town. For some reason Katara lunged at Zuko and started tugging his hair. What the hell is this? I quickly cleaned the wax out of our ears.

"What are you doing woman?" I asked.

"We need to hide his scar," Katara said brusquely. "I'm trying to comb over his hair to hide it."

"I have a system," Zuko muttered and gestured to his cloak.

"It's hot bright sunny day. You will look like a dodgy shady character if you wear that now and draw attention to us!"

"There are plenty of dodgy characters in the markets in case you haven't noticed and no one pays attention to them!"

"Look, if you just let me comb it over you won't have to wear that hot heavy cloak for today okay!"

Zuko scowled and acquiesced in resignation. It was strange and disturbing watching Katara fuss over him but in the end she did manage to hide the scar. He looked like a moody kid with a sweeping fringe that covered one eye. It looked ridiculous – who would wear their hair like that? It defeated practicality and depth perception.

"What?" Zuko demanded. I pointed to a nearby streamed snorting with laughter. He took one look at his new hairstyle and quickly messed it up again before Katara could say anything.

"Who knows Zuko. Maybe you'll be starting a fashion trend for years to come."

He glared at me in response. He isn't quick witted enough for smart replies.

"Hey, you've sported worse hairstyles. Remember that ponytail you used to wear?"

"That was a topknot! It is an important indicator of status among my people. Besides, you're one to talk – you're wearing it in that style right now!"

"Only to blend in with the rest of you Fire Nation people! It's not my fault your fashion trends are stupid! That's why I think the one-eyed sweepy fringe thing will really kick in here."

"Well as far as I recall, you had your hair in a ponytail when I first met you too!"

"That's a warrior's wolf tail. Completely different."

"Girls, girls, you're both pretty, can we go shopping now?" Katara interrupted with a completely deadpanned face.

"Katara, I'm so proud of you! You've finally learned how to use Sokkasm!" I gave her a hug.

"Sokka, that word will never catch on," Katara sighed. "Come on, let's get this over and done with."

Zuko grabbed his cloak and put it on. Katara frowned at him.

"If you get caught because a guard thinks you're shady and you're delivering suspicious substances like cactus juice…"

"A guard isn't going to notice me."

"Wanna bet?"

"What's the point? It's my money you're betting with…"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Yes I'm a horrible author. I got stuck with the story again and I couldn't figure out a way to make it move. I need to plan my stories better. **

**Anyone got any ideas what I can name the naval market place. I didn't want to accidently make up a Chinese phrase that was completely wrong. I tried Behind the Name for a bit but I got sick of it.**


	7. A Man Date!

Chapter 7: A Man Date!

To Katara's relief and chagrin she was proven wrong – Zuko was able to enter the naval market place without any fuss. Fortunately there were plenty of shady figures walking around with cloaks that people didn't notice. Seriously, how bad is the security of the Fire Nation? They can't even recognise their distinguishably scarred exiled ex-prince! Maybe we have a chance of winning this war after all…

Other than that, this naval market place was the largest cacophony I had ever seen! Small stalls made of tents and mats spread out over the beach like a patchwork quilt of yellows, browns, oranges and greens. This market was very disorganised, where there were no sections for objects within the same category anywhere – there were food stalls sprinkled here and there among people trying to sell toys, animals and other hardware. Right in front of us there was a merchant yelling about so-called Airbender relics and antiques while another shouted about cabbages. The smell of goat pigs fought with the smell of freshly cooked cakes, other sweets and…

There was a meat restaurant to our left! Hanging at the window there was seal jerky, beefchicken, chickenpork, porkbeef… you name it! All the jerky in the world! There was meat that had been deep-fried, pan-fried, boiled, broiled, steamed and roasted. I have never been so happy to see so many dead animals!

"Um Katara, what do we do with him?" Zuko asked, pointing at me. I may have been salivating a bit.

"He'll be fine. He's just seen meat." Katara explained.

"So, this place is pretty big. We may have to split up to get everything we need," Zuko suggested. Katara gave him a suspicious look.

"Look the Avatar – Aang isn't here! I can't kidnap him. Besides the bison probably won't let me fly him without you two!" Zuko exploded. He earned a few stares from the market people. A baby started crying as his mother quickly scurried away with him. He started nervously pulling at his hood.

Katara glared at him for potentially blowing our cover and pulled me over. "Do you think splitting up is a good idea?"

I shrugged. "Like he said, he can't really do much here. Besides, he's not that bad."

"Fine. You can deal with him because if I do he will probably do something stupid – "

"You know I can hear you right?" Zuko called out in a bored tone.

" – and I will probably strangle him at some point. You can handle him right?"

Gee did she think my lack of bending this much of an impairment? "Let's see. The guy can't hunt, can't firebend and is scared of Boomerang – "

"I'm not scared – I just don't like it very much."

" – I think I'll be fine. Besides I have Spacesword!" I whipped it out from my sheath. Katara stepped back in alarm and I think Zuko had the grace to look a little worried. So he should.

"You really shouldn't whip your sword out in public like that," he commented.

Katara gave me a sceptical look and said to Zuko, "Fine. I'll get the food. You two can get the other camping and weapon supplies. You do anything to Sokka and you're dead. We meet back here in three hours."

She stormed off in high dudgeon, although the effect was somewhat diminished when she stopped within our sight to examine groceries. Zuko was staring at her in disbelief.

"What on earth would I do to you?" he asked.

I shrugged and tugged on his arm.

"Come on, let's try out the meat!"

* * *

><p>Since the Fire Nation money belonged to Zuko, he was obviously in charge of the money. Despite the fairness of this situation I couldn't help but be frustrated – it was very embarrassing to beg and convince your former enemy to buy food for you.<p>

"Sokka you can't eat all that, it's not humanely possible!"

"Oh yeah? Watch me!"

"It'll be a huge waste. It has a lot of Fire Nation spices in it."

"I can handle them!"

The store vendor stared at us incredulously. Eventually, I think the fact that we were causing a scene caused Zuko to give in and buy me the three bowls of noodles. Still, he looked sceptical and before I could order my own drink he bought a large glass of milk for me.

I glared at him. To prove my point that I can now stand Fire Nation food I took a big mouthful of noodles.

It BURNED! It was the TWO kinds of hot, spicy hot and heat hot combined! MY MOUTH WAS ON FIRE! Tears were threatening to come out of my eyes –

No! Must. Prove. Jerkbender. Wrong.

Must. Keep. Eating.

Don't. Drink. The milk.

I gave him a smile that might have been looked constipated because his face had the WTF reaction to it.

"See!" I said, holding in the tears. "I'm perfectly capable of eating this food!"

Zuko nodded slowly and decided not to comment. We ate in silence, which was fine because I was very much preoccupied with trying not to cry. Eventually, I got used to the spices or the noodles cooled down but I was able to eat the noodles relatively comfortably. Then I looked up and saw Zuko adding MORE CHILLY to his Extra Spicy Flaming Hot Noodles.

The challenge had been set.

I took the complementary chillies and added more of them to my noodles. Zuko took them back and dumped the rest of them on his noodles. I waved down the waiter and asked for more.

The waiter gave me a sceptical look. "Are you sure you want to order more chillies? Your face is rather red sir."

"No, his face always looks like that," Zuko said in a deadpanned voice. Who knew he had a sense of humour? If I didn't know any better I'd say he'd been hanging out with that gloomy girl who sighs a lot. She managed to OWN that expression.

"Oh, right then. Is it sunburn or some kind of infection?"

"What kind of waiter asks those questions? If you think you're going to get a tip, you'd better think again buddy!" I yelled at him and he scurried away.

To my amazement Zuko actually had a small smirk on his face. It was the closest thing to a laugh I had ever seen from him.

"What's so funny?"

"This is the first time I've gone out and _I_ haven't been the one causing the scene." His smirk actually widened.

I glared at him and we returned to eating our noodles in silence. Zuko finished all his noodles before I had started my third bowl. He just had his arms crossed, watching me eat.

Now that's just awkward. No one likes it when someone's just watching them eat. I could feel the Hurry-Up vibes radiating off him. He was tapping the table quite impatiently and looking all over the place.

"So… how do you like the noodles?" he said.

Oh God. Zuko was trying to start a conversation.

"They're pretty good. I might even go for a fourth bowl."

Zuko nodded and thankfully went back to silence. Suddenly I thought of a conversation topic.

"Zuko, why does Katara hate you so much?"

He sighed. "Because I betrayed her in Ba Sing Se."

"How?"

Zuko actually managed to look more uncomfortable than he usually does and looked out the window.

"Oh God, you didn't – "

"What? No! It's not like that! I wouldn't touch her. In fact, she touched me – "

"WHAT?! What are you talking about?! My sister would never touch you!" I shot up so fast that I accidentally knocked over my last bowl of noodles and grabbed him by his tunic.

"Will you two gentlemen please calm down?" the waiter from before squeaked. I glared at him and he scurried off.

Zuko had his hands in the air. I don't think he had ever been in a bare fistfight before. "Look, I didn't physically hurt her. I wouldn't do that – "

"You used to shoot fire at us. In fact, you nearly got Aang killed!"

Suddenly Zuko didn't seem like such a nice guy anymore. I remember when Katara got out of the cave carrying Aang she looked so distraught burned out. Aang looked much worse. For a while I was convinced that he… Katara drained herself to heal him day and night. Other than breathing, the only other sign of life Aang showed was this constant twitching, like he was still suffering from the after effects of lightning. It was one of the hardest few weeks of my life. I could remember why Katara hated him so much.

I was about to punch Prince Jerkbender in the face when someone grabbed my arm. I turned around. A bald burly moustached man with _an actual butcher's knife_ for a right hand was holding my arm back with his left. I don't know if he lost the actual arm part in a fight or accidentally got too carried away chopping up carrots for the soup. I didn't want to find out.

"WHO DARES START A FIGHT IN MY RESTAURANT?!" He had a voice like thunder. Zuko tugged at his hood. I'd like to think it was out of fear rather than the need to cover up his scar.

"Erm, its nothing! It was just a misunderstanding." That came out a lot squeakier than I would have liked it to.

The Chef looked over to Zuko who nodded fervently. He loosened his grip on my arm. He spoke to Zuko. "All right but let me know if he starts abusing you again."

"Erm… okay," was all Zuko could say.

The Chef walked away, swinging his arm-knife casually as he went. Some customers scooted away from him as he strode past.

"Come on," Zuko muttered and pulled out his money pouch. "Lets get out of here before everyone gets suspicious."

I could only nod on follow him. I'd have to duke it out with him later. We reached the counter where the Worst Waiter in the World was waiting. He was smiling. He probably got a kick out of seeing me get yelled at by the chef.

It was a while before one of us some distance away from the Tasty-but-Terribly-Serviced Restaurant that one of us had the nerve to speak. It was Zuko.

"That was… not a good restaurant."

He has a gift for the understatement.

"Well, at least the food was good."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I'm sorry it took so long to update again. Nevertheless, thank you for your support and actually sticking with this! This story is coming out a lot longer than I thought it would. Whilst it is amazing that I have followers and faves, the reviews are what motivate me the most so the reviews have my greatest respect.**

**One of the main reasons it took so long was that I felt my sense of humour was being quite strained on this chapter – it felt forced. It took a while for me to sort it out. I also tried to improve on my description here, as suggested by the reviewer theAsh0 *****Waves. Constructive criticism is always welcome.**

**So here we have Zuko and Sokka having a fight. Even though in the series they didn't really fight it was probably warranted considering what Sokka would have went through when Aang nearly died. He doesn't quite have the full picture with what Katara said but Katara is his sister and he trusts what she says. A lot of viewers (myself included) thought Katara was a real bitch to Zuko when he first showed up at the WAT, but considering the trauma of nearly losing a friend, it's not completely unwarranted. The viewers don't watch the slow painful process of Aang lying in a coma, unless they read the comic books. The fact that we see Aang automatically get up in Season 3 reduces the impact of the trauma of nearly losing him that Katara and Sokka went through. She also didn't see Zuko and all the things he went through and chose to do like we did. I noticed I pretty much had Sokka forget the traumatic experience in Ba Sing Se in this fic and thought I should correct it because there is no way you can truly forget something like that happening. So I have belatedly tried to amend that.**


	8. Two Sides to the Story

Chapter 8: Two Sides to the Story

Zuko and I examined weapons and other supplies in silence at a stall after our hasty retreat from that restaurant. I couldn't bring up Katara without wanting to strangle him so we stayed quiet. I'll just wait til we get home and slip some laxatives in his fireflakes bags. That'll teach him.

"I honestly didn't touch your sister," he said quietly whilst he was coiling up some rope. I had been examining a knife and now I was imagining it in a place that wouldn't be too comfortable for him. A weapons stall isn't the best place to start this conversation. Then again, he would have to face Spacesword and my full-unleashed wrath when we got home and the need to be inconspicuous was gone.

"We started talking," Zuko ploughed on. "She told me about your mother. I told her about mine. She… she offered to heal my scar."

I dropped the knife I was holding. I was lucky for once, for it didn't land in my foot. "What?! She could do that?"

Zuko shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. She had this special water around her neck. But then you guys came back and she was gone."

"So what happened next?" I asked.

"Azu – " he spared a glance for the dodgy storekeeper with one tooth. He had his arm around another customer, trying to persuade him to buy a knock off sundial. " – My sister came and made an offer I couldn't refuse. If I helped her defeat the Avatar I could go home."

"Why couldn't you go home before?"

Zuko's jaw tightened and he focused on scrutinising the merchandise. "That's a long story I don't want to get into with you right now."

We continued to rifle through supplies we needed in silence. This stall was a bit of a mess – everything was jumbled and the shop owner obviously threw everything into a sack at the end of each day. It wasn't a very permanent establishment – the structure was a bit wonky as though it had been hastily thrown together in the morning. It probably allowed for a quick getaway if and when Fire Nation Officials decided to inspect this place.

"So what did Katara mean when she said you betrayed her exactly?"

Zuko shrugged. "I guess she expected me to join your side after offering to heal my scar. But she didn't even do it. She just left..."

I didn't know what to think of this. Katara had of course been hysterical when she first told us the story. She had been tending to an unconscious Aang after all. She never mentioned her offer to heal Zuko's scar. I honestly don't know what the hell she was thinking making that offer to the enemy so quickly – she must have been in one of her hopelessly optimistic trusting moods. Or maybe she suffered a few bumps to the head. She always said that Zuko had manipulated her into trusting him, although she never went into the details.

"Zuko, did you ever say to my sister you were joining our side in Ba Sing Se?"

He shook his head. "I was a mess when I made my decision to go with Azula. I betrayed Uncle… I just wanted to go home… I know it was stupid now. I'm sorry about breaking your sister's trust… I just didn't know I had it."

We finally finished gathering the necessary supplies and set out to look for Katara. I really wanted to know what the deal was behind her offer to heal his scar. We found her soon enough with a rucksack of food at her feet purchasing another one.

"And you tell me I'm addicted to shopping," I said.

She shot me a scowl. "Most of this food is to feed your appetite!"

Zuko wordlessly picked up the two rucksacks and walked ahead of us and out of earshot. I guess he didn't want to talk anymore.

"What's wrong with him?" she asked. Then she gave me the once over to check if Zuko had impaled or burned me in the time we were alone.

"Nothing," I said and we started heading towards Appa.

"Something must have happened. You're never quiet."

"Katara, what actually happened between you and Zuko in Ba Sing Se?"

She pursed her lips. "I told you – "

"In brief summary, yes. I mean, what actually happened? Zuko said you offered to heal his scar."

She wouldn't look me in the eye and stared straight ahead. "I did."

"Why did you do that?"

"He started telling me things. Things about his mother… He made it sound like he was going to change! To become a better person! And then Aang and his Uncle came along and I don't know what went into his head!"

"Katara, what were his exact words?"

She frowned at the memory. "He said he thought he was cursed to chase the Avatar forever. He made it sound like he didn't want to do it in the first place. Then he said he was free to determine his own destiny. And then when opportunity struck, he went back to chasing Aang anyway!"

"… You took 'determining his own destiny' to be 'I'm joining the Avatar'?"

"I know it was stupid now! That's why I don't trust him. You shouldn't either. Has he been telling you sob stories to get inside your head?"

"No."

"He's probably trying a different tactic with you. Well I'm not going to be fooled again!"

We crossed a few paddocks. Zuko was walking really fast despite carrying three rucksacks. I know for a fact Katara would have filled at least one of those sacks with potatoes – as Man of the Igloo I used to be the one who had to carry it. Zuko did sound like he was going to change from Katara's point of view… although 'determining his own destiny' is radically different to 'I'm joining the Avatar'. Of course, you never outright tell Katara she is wrong – she will just rant, rave and deny it. She would probably get too caught up arguing that she is right to see common sense.

"So what happened when you tried to heal his scar? Did it not work? Is that why he went back to his sister?"

Pain and shame hit Katara's face. "Actually… I didn't do it. There wasn't enough time. Aang and his Uncle came and we had to save Ba Sing Se. I thought I could get back to it later once the fight was over. Then he made his choice."

"You thought you could get back to it later… Did you actually tell him that?"

She looked down at her feet. "No. I thought he would understand that it was an urgent situation. Ba Sing Se was under attack. It clearly wasn't the time."

I didn't say anything while we caught up with Zuko who was waiting with Appa. I could see that Katara was thinking and she wasn't too happy with herself. It went without saying that Zuko's scar was a big deal. Heck, even when we were enemies we never insulted the scar – we insulted all his other aspects but the scar was a no go zone. Having that scar on your face forever… well, I know it wouldn't suit me. Of course it would hurt a lot too. And then to have your hopes raised and dashed so quickly… I can see why he went back to trusting the Fire Nation over us.

None of us said anything on the flight back. As we got closer to home, we could see Aang bouncing away in the courtyard to anticipate us. He probably couldn't wait to get away from Toph's tough love. Get it? Toph's tough love. Anyway, he was quite surprised that all of us were a bit depressed after our so-called bonding trip. I think he was hoping we'd all be best friends laughing about it or something. He immediately grabbed Katara and tried to cheer her up by showing her what he had learned in earth bending.

Zuko quickly turned away and headed to his room. I didn't really feel like sticking around to watch Aang do a gajillion things I couldn't do either so I followed him. He stopped before he reached his room but didn't turn around to face me.

"I take it you talked to her about Ba Sing Se?"

"Yeah..."

"What do you think?"

"I think it was a big misunderstanding. If possible, you two should talk about it, when she is in one of her reasonable moods."

Zuko turned around and snorted. "When do those occur? Once every blue moon?"

"Certain times of the moon cycle are when she is most unreasonable. Look, Katara takes things for granted sometimes. She sees the good in people, and with the war going on, she tries really hard to see good in people, even if it's not there."

Zuko blanched.

"No I wasn't talking about you! I was talking about this other guy we met… he's not important; you've probably never met him. Give her some time and everything will be fine."

He looked doubtful. Then he spotted The Duke around the corner.

"Duke!" he said. The Duke shrank a bit and didn't even comment on the fact that Zuko wasn't saying his name properly.

"Yeah?" he said, making an effort to stick out his chest to show that Zuko didn't intimidate him. Zuko rummaged around the rucksack he was carrying and pulled out a coil of rope which he handed over to him.

"Why are you giving me this?" he asked.

"Because you said you needed it," Zuko stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"You know, you're actually nice for a firebender," Duke commented offhandedly.

It was funny – Zuko's expression was torn between genuinely complimented or insulted. "Er, thanks."

The Duke didn't know what else to make of this situation so he went off to play with his rope. Around the corner I saw a pair of blue eyes watching the exchange around the corner.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So, I guess this chapter is a bit of a talky analysis and less on the humorous side for me. Ba Sing Se is obviously a huge issue for all of them and no true friendships can really be formed until it is actually discussed. A bromance can't truly form until Sokka at least know why his sister hates Zuko. Fortunately this chapter rolled off the keys quite easily for me **** I didn't want this chapter to be particularly one-sided and it is obviously really a huge misunderstanding between the two. I decided against Sokka telling off Katara with some obvious character bashing – I think his silence can be a bit more effective, even if there were a few things that Katara did need to be called out on. I also don't think he would try to tell Katara off – it's not really his style. Even though he is the older sibling Katara has been taking care of him after all these years after all. He can also see her point of view why she would overtake such huge leaps of faith in Zuko because he knows Katara and even though she did hurt Zuko in Ba Sing Se with her unkempt promise, it was definitely unintentional.**


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